News, 5/8/2017

New Heads of Mission to Tehran, Windhoek and Ramallah and authorisation for Finland’s Permanent Mission to the OSCE

At the presidential session on Friday 5 May, the President of the Republic appointed Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Keijo Norvanto to serve as Head of Mission in Tehran, Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Pirkko-Liisa Kyöstilä to serve as Head of Mission in Windhoek, and Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen to serve as Head of Mission of the Representative Office in Ramallah from 1 September 2017. Additionally, the President of the Republic authorised Päivi Laivola de Rosière to serve as Permanent Representative of Finland to the OSCE at the Embassy of Finland in Vienna from 1 June 2017.

Keijo Norvanto will transfer to Tehran from the Department for Communications, where he has worked as Deputy Director General since 2014 and, before that, as Director of the Unit for Communications on Current Affairs.

In the Ministry, he has also held positions in the Department for the Americas and Asia, the Department for Europe, and the Department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and worked as Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In the diplomatic service, Norvanto has served at the Missions of Finland in New Delhi, London and Riyadh. Norvanto holds a Master of Social Sciences degree.

He joined the Foreign Ministry in 1997.

Pirkko-Liisa Kyöstilä will transfer to Windhoek from the Representative Office in Ramallah where she has served as Head of Mission since 2014.

She has held various positions in the Ministry, including in the Department for Development Policy, where she has been Director of the Unit for Civil Society.

Kyöstilä has worked as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Kathmandu and held posts at the Permanent Delegation of Finland to the OECD and at the Missions of Finland in Rome and Dar es Salaam.

Kyöstilä holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration. She joined the Ministry in 1987.

Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen will transfer to Ramallah from the Prime Minister’s Office where she has served as the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser (International Affairs) since 2014.

In the Ministry, she has worked in the Department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Department for Communications and Culture, the Department for Development Policy, and the Administrative Department.

In the diplomatic service, Heikkinen has served in New Delhi, Moscow and Petrozavodsk.

Heikkinen holds a Master of Social Sciences degree. She joined the Foreign Ministry in 2003.

Päivi Laivola de Rosière has worked as Director of the Unit for South-Eastern Europe since 2012.

She has worked in the Political Department, the Administrative Department and the Department for External Economic Relations.

She has also held positions at the Missions of Finland in Paris, Tokyo and Brussels and at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the OSCE in Vienna.

Laivola de Rosière holds a Master of Science degree in Economics and Business Administration.

She joined the Foreign Ministry in 1986.

In addition, the President of the Republic authorised Ambassador Laura Kansikas-Debraise, Head of Finland’s Mission in Cairo, to represent Finland also in Sudan.